Global Headquarters: 5 Speen Street Framingham, MA USA P F

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1 Global Headquarters: 5 Speen Street Framingham, MA USA P F W H I T E P A P E R E x t e n d i n g P C L i f e - C y c l e M a n a g e m e n t a n d C l i e n t V i r t u a l i z a t i o n w i t h V M w a r e H o r i z o n M i r a g e Sponsored by: VMware Brett Waldman May 2013 I D C O P I N I O N PC life-cycle management (PCLM) solutions primarily focus on deploying or moving an application or an operating environment to a new user location. Functions include packaging, distributing, installing, and updating an application or an operating environment. These solutions provide a certain level of automation and are certainly more advanced than dealing strictly with scripts. However, they have complex workflows and do not provide the highest level of automation. In today's multidevice world, where the average user carries three or more devices, this paradigm alone is not agile enough for the modern end user. Client virtualization can be seen as an alternative to traditional PCLM and provides the agility end users want because virtual desktops and applications can be streamed securely to nearly any device. However, client virtualization is not for every user. Users who are constantly on the road or running graphics-intensive workloads may find client virtualization better suited as a complementary use case. This results in a mix of virtual and traditional clients. That is, in organizations that decide to virtualize clients, a portion and sometimes a majority of users continue using traditional PCs. VMware Horizon Mirage provides centralized control and management of desktop images, whether an organization owns the computers or users bring their own device. Horizon Mirage has two primary aspects: Layered desktop images. Horizon Mirage offers IT a layered desktop image approach. Layering enables IT to control parts of everyone's desktop and to update or migrate desktops without overwriting user-installed applications or data. Backup of user desktops. Horizon Mirage automatically synchronizes the datacenter backup with changes to the endpoint. Centrally stored desktop images and periodic endpoint snapshots allow IT to recover partial or full desktops when needed. VMware Horizon Mirage is not a replacement for PCLM or client virtualization; it complements and extends existing investments and processes. For instance, organizations can manage the content of a PC image with their existing PCLM tools and leverage Horizon Mirage to build and deploy the image.

2 I N T H I S W H I T E P A P E R This white paper explores the features and functionality of VMware Horizon Mirage. It also looks at how VMware Horizon Mirage complements and extends PC life-cycle management tools and other solutions in VMware's portfolio. S I T U A T I O N O V E R V I E W The conflict between end users and IT is older than the PC market itself. Until recently, IT had firm control of this conflict and inserted itself as a benign dictator. IT had total control of the environment PCs, operating systems, and applications and created standards throughout the environment as much as it could, not necessarily because IT wanted to but because IT had a duty to uphold regulatory and compliance edicts. In this environment, PCLM was pretty effective because everything was standard. However, with the recent bring-your-own-device (BYOD) revolution, standardization is no longer an option. Users have regained control of their devices. IT can no longer push one, maybe two hardware vendors onto users. Now users are bringing in devices, PCs, laptops, tablets, and phones from many different vendors and different operating systems. IT is truly dealing with a heterogeneous environment. T h e R i s e o f C e n t r a l i z e d V i r t u a l D e s k t o p s ( C V D a k a V D I ) Over the past decade, the rise of the virtual desktop has benefited IT departments and end users immensely. By abstracting the client's underlying operating system and moving it to a central, accessible location, this technology allows mobile and multiclient-enabled users to access their work anytime, anywhere. It also reduces operating costs. However, as the industry has discovered, desktop virtualization has some great capabilities and some shortcomings, the biggest of which is that it requires a constant Internet connection. For users who are always inside the firewall, this is not a problem. However, more employees are working on the go at coffee shops, on airplanes, on trains and wireless networks are not at a point where users can expect to always have an Internet connection available to them. This limits the CVD total available market to less than 20% of worldwide employees. VMware Horizon Mirage VMware Horizon Mirage provides centralized control and management of desktop images, whether an organization owns the computers or users bring their own devices. Horizon Mirage has two primary aspects: Layered desktop images Backup of user desktops 2 # IDC

3 Layered Desktop Image s Horizon Mirage offers IT a layered desktop image approach. Layering enables IT to control parts of everyone's desktop and to update or migrate desktops without overwriting user-installed applications or data. With Horizon Mirage, IT can reduce the time and money required to standardize particular layers of the desktop, back up desktops, and handle both planned migrations and unplanned desktop recovery. Layers are logical divisions of Horizon Mirage desktop images and are useful for creating standardized desktop configurations. IT can choose to create base layers (with the operating system, system software, and standard applications), a Driver Library, and application layers. Multiple base layers can be customized for different sets of users; for example, by department or for executives. IT can also create multiple application layers to be distributed to different defined sets of users. IT then assigns these base layers and application layers to endpoints and updates the layers with patches and new content as needed. Endpoints do not receive layer updates continually; instead, layer updates are initiated and scheduled by IT. IT has total control over the content, assignment, and deployment of base and application layers. Depending upon IT policies, users can control their own data and settings as well as install their own applications on their endpoints. These personalizations exist side by side with IT-controlled base and application layers. Backu p of User Desktops Horizon Mirage automatically synchronizes the datacenter backup with changes to the endpoint. Centrally stored desktop images and periodic endpoint snapshots allow IT to recover partial or full desktops when needed. These periodic snapshots of endpoints are automatically uploaded to the datacenter while users work without interruption. While a user is disconnected from the network, user changes to the endpoint are flagged for upload when the user reconnects. Horizon Mirage desktop images are stored centrally in the datacenter. Yet, users are allowed to work on their local personal computers, with full use of native PC hardware capabilities. Execution is local to the PC, and end users can work online or offline; they are not tied to a network. The user's data and settings and user-installed applications are persistent. Extending and Complementing PCLM and CVD with Horizon Mirage VMware Horizon Mirage is not a replacement for PC life-cycle management solutions; rather, it complements and extends existing PCLM investments and processes. PCLM tools manage the content of a PC image, and Horizon Mirage manages the building and deployment of the image. Horizon Mirage provides centralized management of Windows desktop images, rapid desktop recovery, easy migration of operating system versions, and delivery of both core applications and customized sets of applications to end users IDC #

4 VMware Horizon Mirage also complements existing VMware Horizon View deployments. As stated previously, client virtualization Horizon View may be great for a portion of an organization's users, but probably not all of them. With the VMware Horizon Suite, VMware provides a single platform to control and manage physical and virtual desktops. For Apple Mac users who need access to local Microsoft Windows applications, Horizon Mirage now includes Fusion Pro, which can create a virtual machine on the Mac that is installed locally but managed centrally by Horizon Mirage. F U T U R E O U T L O O K VMware Horizon Mirage saw initial success with streamlining Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista migration to Windows 7. Microsoft customers continue to have an enormous installed base of Windows XP operating systems. As of the end of 2012, Windows XP accounts for a remarkable 46% of the paid commercial (non home use) Windows client operating environment installed base. IDC expects the current trajectory of the Windows XP installed base, even with the approaching termination of Windows XP extended support, will contract to only 25% of paid commercial Windows client operating systems in use by the end of However, VMware Horizon Mirage has found success among users who are very mobile as well as in scenarios involving branch office management and desktop recovery. VMware Horizon Mirage's layered desktop image philosophy makes the product very agile and low profile, allowing users to continue to work as they always have. This ability allows IT to have the managed desktop it wants and gives users the flexibility they want, including the ability to bring their own devices and install their own applications. Now that VMware Horizon Mirage can be purchased as part of the VMware Horizon Suite, which also includes VMware Horizon View and VMware Horizon Workspace, organizations can manage physical and virtual desktops as well as data and applications on a single platform. C H A L L E N G E S / O P P O R T U N I T I E S VMware Horizon Mirage is unlike almost any other product out there. While the solution could be considered a type of virtualization, it is certainly not like any other that VMware has ever offered before. This distinctive product has many advantages, as stated previously, but its distinctiveness also makes it difficult for some customers to understand. It will require a good amount of customer education for Horizon Mirage to be successful, but VMware is no stranger to disrupting the market. It is the vendor that introduced the virtual desktop infrastructure to the world. VMware's new bundling strategy for the Horizon Suite is also a great opportunity for the company and Horizon Mirage in particular. Many organizations have already deployed Horizon View, and many more are looking to do so in the future. Many companies are also looking to provide their end users with a secure file-sharing alternative to the common consumer file-sharing systems. With VMware Horizon Suite, 4 # IDC

5 VMware has aggressively bundled physical and virtual desktop management, data management, and mobile application management into one suite. For organizations that are looking to purchase more than one of these features, buying the entire suite will be a very attractive option. C O N C L U S I O N VMware Horizon Mirage is a differentiated product for VMware that complements not only other solutions in the VMware portfolio, such as Horizon View and Horizon Workspace, but also PC life-cycle management solutions that many organizations already have in place. Horizon Mirage's ability to complement and extend other solutions should alleviate certain fears of potential customers. Its ability to deliver control and compliance to managed and unmanaged devices is exactly the type of functionality IT needs in today's BYOD era. With less than a year until end of support for Microsoft Windows XP, Horizon Mirage can expedite the migration for any users who are still on the aging operating system. Yet, Horizon Mirage's capabilities extend beyond simple migration, yielding definitive business value for customers for many years to come. C o p y r i g h t N o t i c e External Publication of IDC Information and Data Any IDC information that is to be used in advertising, press releases, or promotional materials requires prior written approval from the appropriate IDC Vice President or Country Manager. A draft of the proposed document should accompany any such request. IDC reserves the right to deny approval of external usage for any reason. Copyright 2013 IDC. Reproduction without written permission is completely forbidden IDC #